The present invention relates generally to processing data representing melt characteristics of oligonucleotides, and more particularly to systems and methods for determining one or more melting temperatures for an oligonucleotide sample based on melt curve data.
Determination of DNA melting temperatures, usually performed directly after a PCR experiment, is an important method to distinguish genotypes. For example, recently discussed in the literature is the use of examining the KRAS gene to determine which patients might be candidates for a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. Patients whose KRAS gene is of a wild-type would benefit from the treatment, whereas if the patient had a mutant variation of this gene, the treatment would be of no benefit. As these treatments often have major side effects, it is very important to determine the patient's correct genotype. The use of a melting KRAS assay can help distinguish the genotype of the patient.
Therefore it is desirable to provide systems and methods that accurately and efficiently determine the melting temperature of a DNA sample.